Widgetized Section

MS ROSE MUKANTABANA, RWANDA’S SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT IN GREAT DILEMNA WITH PAC REPORT ON RUKARARA HYDRO POWER DAM

Honorable Speaker , Rose Mukantabana.

Our investigative desk continues to make a close follow up about the Rukarara hydro power dam scandal that has exposed the James Musoni, the embattled Minister of Local and President Kagame’s blue eyed boy in charge of looting government and donor funds.

For starters, Rukarara hydro power dam was built last year and started generating power to the citizens. And it was till early this year that the parliament picked interest after allegations that officials in the Ministries of infrastructure and Finance embezzled money.

According to reliable sources, the first person to blow the whistle was none other than James Musoni. In his usual Machiavellian modulus operandi, he summoned first summoned Emmanuel Gasana and Martin Ngoga, the Inspector General of Police and Prosecutor General respectively. He ordered them to carry out investigations about the missing funds in Rukarara hydro power dam. Then, the two perused through the official handover documents of the project and informed him that there was no evidence of loss of money.
Then, Musoni decided to use the parliament to pursue his mission (or that of his boss) of looking for culprits.
Therefore, in January 2012, he summoned Ms Rose Mukantabana, Rwanda’s Speaker of Parliament and ordered her to convene a parliament session and influence members to carry out an investigation about the Rukarara hydro dam project. The lady was reluctant at first because she also did not find a convincing way of handling this matter. However, Musoni, in his cunning way made a pledge that the RPF would reward her with another term of office as Speaker of parliament after next year’s parliamentary elections. The lady got excited about it, and she accepted to take up the mission with zeal and vigor.

In this meeting, Musoni promised that he and Ms Aloisia Inyumba would mobilize the RPF legislators to back this mission. Indeed, Musoni and Inyumba (both Kagame agents of destruction) summoned the RPF legislators and ordered them to support the Speaker’s motion of setting up a commission of inquiry into Rukarara hydro dam project. On the day of the parliamentary session, all legislators (in their usual and expected attitude) applauded and voted (rather endorsed) the motion to set up a commission of inquiry.

In March 2012, a parliamentary committee was voted, headed by Evode Karima and deputized by Aurelia Gahongayire and mandated to carry out the investigation. The committee submitted their findings and recommendations to the plenary session presided over by the Speaker of parliament. In their recommendations, they recommended that implicated government officers should be prosecuted. The entire plenary session upheld the report and asked government institutions to make a follow up.

Shortly after, some implicated officers made an alarm the committee did not bother to summon them to enable them share their part of the story. A thing that the legislators knew was a corner stone in carrying out an investigation. By ignoring to invite those implicated to share their side of the story, the legislators knew very well what they were doing. James Musoni and Rose Mukantabana had individually ordered them not to talk to the implicated officials but rather write and submit the report without their input. And as ordered, the committee compiled and submitted a report. This report was applauded and approved by the plenary session. To Rose Mukantabana, James Musoni had been accomplished, and the lady thumped her chest with cheers looking at another term of office as a Speaker of Kagame’s parliament.

The implicated officials made a loud noise, calling upon to whoever listened to allow them equal justice. At first, James Musoni and the Speaker ignored their cry for justice. The media chipped in, and eventually during one of the famous Kagame monologue press conference, a journalist brought out the kind of injustices and foul involving the legislators and the implicated officials in the Rukarara hydro power dam.
Our investigative team found out that it is after this press conference, that Rose Mukantabana, the Speaker of parliament called a special plenary session to deny and reject the Evode Karima’s committee report which they (parliament) had previously approved. This U-turn is clear sign of how institutions in Rwanda are Kagame owned and run!

The rubber stamp parliament asked Juvenal Nkusi and his parliamentary committee of accounts (PAC) to take up the investigation. According to our reliable source, PAC interviewed all the individuals associated with the hydro dam, including the implicated government officials. The only person that was not interrogated was James Musoni, Kagame’s blue eyed mafia man. This again speaks volumes and indicates who the thief is if money was at all embezzled from the dam. Many people still wonder why James Musoni, who was a Minister of Finance by then, was left out and yet the committee interrogated John Rwangombwa, the current Minister of Finance who at the time was Secretary General in the Ministry.
During PAC’s investigation, the Speaker again attempted to influence Juvenal Nkusi to endorse Evode Karima’s report. PAC’s Chairman and former Speaker of Parliament and from PL stood his ground and refused to take orders from Rose Mukantabana. The latter, then called James Musoni and informed her about Juvenal Nkusi’s refusal to yield to endorsing the Evode Karima’s report. James Musoni made underground attempts and talks to Juvenal Nkusi, who again refused to give up. And all PAC members stand by Nkusi’s refusal to take orders of the Speaker or James Musoni.

Our reporter has reliable information that PAC recently submitted its report with all findings to the Speaker of Parliament. The report exonerates the earlier implicated officials. Both the speaker and James Musoni are caught up between a rock and hot sauce pan. The Speaker has opted to seek an appointment with the President (Thief in Command) to get new orders about the Juvenal Nkusi’s new report.

If it is true that donors pinned Kagame about the loss of funds in the construction of this hydro power dam, and he in turn mandated Musoni to look for culprits as use scapegoats, then he too is in a delicate position. But if (as others think) this saga is James Musoni’s personal vendetta against the ‘implicated officials’ who seem to have refused to be part of his mafia group, then he too has exposed himself.

As for the poor lady, Rose Mukantabana, Musoni’s promise to handover you another term of office as a Speaker hangs in balance. Perhaps, you will have to look for another way of appeasing Musoni and his boss to grab another chance to serve them (and not to serve Rwandans).
Andrew Nzamurambaho
Kigali, Rwanda